


Apple Wood Burning and Other Sweet Things

by bookwormally



Category: Kingdom Hearts (Video Games)
Genre: Campfires, Domestic Fluff, Established Relationship, M/M, Post-Canon
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-06
Updated: 2020-09-06
Packaged: 2021-03-06 17:27:19
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,506
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26322640
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/bookwormally/pseuds/bookwormally
Summary: It was Demyx's turn to pick an activity for date night. So, they're having a bonfire.This has as much sugar as an actual s'more, fair warning.Happy Zemyx Day 2 for 2020!
Relationships: Demyx/Ienzo (Kingdom Hearts), Demyx/Zexion (Kingdom Hearts)
Comments: 13
Kudos: 30





	Apple Wood Burning and Other Sweet Things

**Author's Note:**

> Notices it's Zemyx Day (2). Notices I have nothing to post. Puts on campfire ambiance 10 hour video and goes all in.
> 
> Anyway, happy Zemyx day, these two are the best!

The slim branch snaps easily in his hands yet still has a satisfying crack. Ienzo tosses the pieces into the pile and picks up another branch. This one also snaps, but the bark cracks, leaving pieces on his palm. He pulls a face and brushes them off on his pants. “I have so much respect for nature, I truly do, but I get tired of its attempts to get me dirty.”

“Better to be dirty and hidden from predators than clean and dead.” Demyx, busy stacking actual logs into a pyramid shape, doesn’t even glance at him.

Ienzo considers throwing the branch pieces at him, but drops them in the kindling pile he’s been making. “Dirt breeds disease.”

“No, that’s waste. Dirt is fine until you’re rubbing it in open wounds.” Demyx lifts his hands from the logs and they stay standing. Grinning at his triumph, he turns to Ienzo. “You can’t trick me.”

“I wasn’t trying to trick you. The point stands.” Ienzo sticks his tongue out at Demyx. He rests his elbows on his knees, folding his arms as he looks at the wood. “Why are we doing this again?”

Demyx gathers some of them kindling, putting it at the base of the logs. “Because you asked what I wanted to do tonight and I said a fire.”

“And somehow I expected arson before this,” Ienzo mutters.

“Stop spending time with Isa. You sound like him when you complain.” Demyx waggles a branch piece at Ienzo as if he can spell away his comment. “It’s a bonfire. They do them plenty of places. We could even do a roast.”

Ienzo looks at him flatly. “A roast. Doesn’t that take hours?”

“Yes.” Demyx grins at him, unbothered as always. “But I thought of something much quicker.” He reaches around the chair set up for him and pulls out a bag. He tosses it to Ienzo. It lands in his hands with a soft thump and he blinks at it.

“Marshmallows?”

“Please tell me someone told you about s'mores. You had no childhood if you’ve never had a s'more.”

Ienzo rolls his eyes. “I’ve heard of s'mores, yes. But you know I was a fiend for ice cream.”

“Your grandpa made you an addict,” Demyx says with a nod. “It’s a wonder you still have teeth.”

Ienzo throws the marshmallow bag at his head. “Now _you_ sound like Even!”

Demyx grabs the marshmallows and tosses them on his empty chair. “He has a point!”

“Like he doesn’t dump cups of sugar into his coffee and tea!” Ienzo sticks his tongue out again and Demyx laughs. “The _point_ ,” he insists, “is that no, I’ve never had a s'more, but they sound good if you like things that stick to your teeth.”

“Well if you don’t want one, there’s more for me.” Demyx eyes his construction of wood, nods, and then picks up the lighter. With a couple clicks, he’s encouraging a flame to grow on the kindling branches.

Ienzo, because he can’t stop himself sometimes, has to point out that he could have used magic. Demyx waves him off as the crackling sound of a fire grows from a few small snaps. The flames grow bigger, starting to catch on the slimmer logs Demyx placed. Demyx scoots back, leaning against the chair. “I could have,” he answers properly, “but I think I would have made fewer sparks than the lighter. I use water, hello.”

“I could have lit it then.”

Now Demyx rolls his eyes. “And the wood probably would have exploded. You like magic a bit too much.”

Ienzo reaches over to flick him in the head. “Don’t make it sound weird. I like magic, it’s not a crime.”

Demyx catches his hand before it can retract, a grin taking over his face. “It’s not, but I don’t want splinters in my face because you thought _firaga_ would be necessary for a bonfire.”

“If you had built a big one…” Ienzo winds their fingers together. “I do have some sense, you know.”

“Some,” Demyx agrees, “but not as much as me.”

“Ass.”

Demyx just laughs and stands. Ienzo drops his hand for the moment as Demyx checks the growth of the fire, moves his chair closer to Ienzo’s, and makes sure the chocolate isn’t in danger of melting. There’s more work than he expected to go into a simple fire and some toasted marshmallows. He says as much as Demyx takes a seat again.

It gets him a shrug. “Even simple things take work to get just right.”

Ienzo reaches across the much smaller gap between their seats, catching Demyx’s hand, and running his fingers over the callouses there. Simple things, but worked at until they’re perfected or something like it. Yes, that would be a way to summarize Demyx’s approach to life. Things that might not mean much to others, things that Ienzo might once have written off as unimportant, but things that matter and the world be darker without are what Demyx will give his whole heart to.

“That tickles.” Demyx takes his hand, intertwining their fingers. “What are you doing?”

“Thinking, as always.” Ienzo shrugs now. The fire has well and truly caught up, crackling merrily over the branches and logs as they slowly darken and then go white with ash. “I never would have thought to do this.”

“Because you think everything worth your time is inside.” Demyx is clearly teasing, but Ienzo knocks his knuckles against the arm of a chair anyway. Demyx snorts and lifts their hands to kiss their knuckles. “My apologies mister science,” Demyx says in a false-posh voice, “does this activity meet your required standards for merriment and entertainment.”

Ienzo fakes a kick at his leg. “Shut up. If you actually spoke like that, I’d have to throw you out a window.”

“You tried that anyway,” Demyx hums. “And that was while I was playing _music,_ the most innocent of sounds!”

“I was working!”

“Too much.”

It’s an argument they’ve had before, all the rough edges sanded off with an understanding of both sides. Ienzo drops it with a shake of his head and leans closer to Demyx. The sun has dipped below the horizon now, the sky all dusky purple. The silhouettes of the cliffs and the trees that make up the wilds outside of Radiant Garden are dark shapes against the lingering color of the sky. It’s like a painting of someone’s abstract version of a land and Ienzo can’t remember the last time he looked at it at precisely this time of day.

“I wouldn’t mind some music now,” he says softly. His gaze drops to the fire, all bright colors that contrast just so with the horizon. Orange, red, and white, if he lets his eyes unfocus it looks like a child’s scribble, colors placed every which way without thought for the whole of the paper. It’s not entirely a bad thing to see the world in simple shades.

Demyx seems equally caught in the atmosphere he built - his words slow to reply. “…Well, campfire songs are another tradition. But you’d have to stop holding my hand so I could play.”

Ienzo weighs the pros and cons, then tightens his hold on Demyx’s hand. “I can wait a bit for the ambiance.”

“Oh good.” Demyx kisses their fingers and then sets their hands down again. “You’re actually enjoying this, right?”

“Very much so, actually.” Ienzo scoots a bit closer, pressing their shoulders together. “I didn’t realize a fire could change so much. It makes things feel…closer, I suppose.”

Demyx nods, his thumb idly rubbing Ienzo’s in the way that means he’s turning over some thought in his head. “It’s like…it’s night so everything feels dark and secretive, but the fire is here so you’re close to everyone around it.”

“Yes. It’s kind of like being the only ones out here in the dark. But in a nice way.” Ienzo smiles at him. They’re far enough from the castle that the lights there don’t reach them, so it’s the campfire that gilds Demyx’s features, brightening his freckles and casting a flickering reflection on his piercings. His eyes flicker with the firelight too, a different sort of glow, and Ienzo knows without a doubt that he’s still completely goddamn smitten.

Demyx’s smile widens as if he can read Ienzo’s thoughts. He leans across the tiny gap between them and kisses Ienzo, softly, sweetly, and warm like the campfire they’re beside. It could be the type to linger, that they draw out into more, but it’s a simple kiss this time.

Ienzo sighs as they pull apart and rubs at his cheek with his free hand. “You undo me,” he murmurs.

“You look so pretty,” Demyx quietly replies. “The fire made me do it.”

It’s ridiculous, and almost exactly what Ienzo was considering before the kiss. He snorts and sits up a bit. “I agree. Let’s do a s'more before it gets too dark to see anything and we stab one another.”

“I’m a master marshmallow toaster, actually. Day or night, I’ll be fine.” Demyx picks up the bag and one of the skewers. He wiggles it between two fingers, showing off, and Ienzo rolls his eyes.

“I’ll _accidentally_ poke you then as I fumble in the half-light.”

“Oh sure, accidentally.” Demyx holds the skewer away from Ienzo. “Maybe you should watch a master first. You didn’t even want one at minute ago!”

He didn’t and probably still doesn’t want one. It’ll be sticky and all over his fingers and he _hates_ having food that gets on his hands. But he’s thinking about the fire and the sweet taste of chocolate and how it might be to kiss a Demyx who’s just finished a snack almost as sweet as him. _Definitely not saying that aloud._

Ienzo shrugs. “I won’t know if I don’t try, right?”

Demyx studies him for a long moment and then offers the skewer over. “Fine. First try. But if you draw blood, no more lessons.”

“I am not going to stab you!”

“You’re the master of paper cuts, _I’m_ being safe!”

Ienzo takes the skewer, doesn’t poke Demyx despite the temptation, and holds out a hand for the marshmallows. “I do not appreciate the disrespect to the Lexicon, but I will take your concerns under discussion with the board.”

“The board being you, yourself, and you.” Demyx hands him two marshmallows and then eats one. “Corrupt courts.”

“But I won’t literally throw the book at you, so-.”

“Not this time!” Demyx waves at the marshmallows. “Focus, Ienzo. It’s marshmallow time and it takes concentration.”

“To toast a marshmallow. Okay.” Ienzo scoots forward on his chair and holds the marshmallows over the fire. The flames lick up around them, but nothing happens at first. Ienzo is just noticing a subtle browning on their edges when one catches entirely on fire. The flame around it is blue, crackling with all the sugar it’s using for fuel and Ienzo shouts.

Demyx grabs his arm and pulls the skewer his direction. Ienzo manages not to smack him in the face with flaming sugar and hot metal, and in a breath, Demyx has blown the offending marshmallow out. It’s now cracked and burned black, though the other survived with only one side showing a burn mark. Demyx slowly arches an eyebrow, staring at Ienzo.

He tries to hold it in, he does, but Ienzo cracks into disbelieving laughter. “Okay, okay, it takes some work!”

“At least neither of us had it get flung into our face,” Demyx says with a shake of his head. “Keep it there. I didn’t get the rest set up for you.”

“I think we both get a middling grade at best.” Ienzo eyes his marshmallows, a testament to unchecked pride, and giggles again. “That went up so quick. Sugar really does burn _very_ quickly.”

“Aeleus will be so happy to know you listened to him about something related to the kitchen…for once.” Demyx assembles a quick spread of graham crackers and chocolate, two little sandwiches waiting for their filling. When he motions for them, Ienzo lowers the marshmallows. Demyx scrapes them from the skewer one at a time, and then drops the top on. “Tada!”

Ienzo sets the skewer aside and then eyes both. “…I think we’re lucky it’s dark so I don’t have to know how badly I failed in the aesthetics.”

Demyx pats his shoulder and offers him the one with the less burnt marshmallow. “The taste is the important thing. Too pretty s'mores just don’t seem real.”

Taking the s'more, Ienzo studies it, but it’s hard to convince himself to take that first bite. That’s when it’ll get everywhere. Demyx, not nearly as concerned, takes a very crunchy bite of his, and hums a pleased sounding tone. One bite is worth it, Ienzo tells himself and takes a corner. It’s _very_ sweet and the marshmallow does try to get all over his lips, but it’s good. Maybe it’s the fire crackling still beside them, maybe it’s the smell of woodsmoke drifting up in the air, or maybe a s'more is just a good thing regardless of setting, but it’s far from bad.

Ienzo enjoys his slowly, watching Demyx polish off the one and toast two more marshmallows to a perfect golden brown before he’s entirely done. He considers the second Demyx offers to him, but then waves it back to him. One’s good enough for now.

He leans back in his chair, eyes on the fire. This really is relaxing, to sit in the dark of night and watch a fire as it flickers and dances over the wood. They should do it again and invite all of their friends. It would be a wonderful time.

But, he’s glad to have done it first with just the two of them. Ienzo leans over, resting his head against Demyx’s shoulder as he continues to watch the flames. “Thank you,” he says simply.

Demyx hums, but doesn’t ask for clarification. Maybe he knows, because he reads Ienzo better than anyone else. Maybe he’s glad to leave things simple and without qualifications. Maybe Demyx is simply Demyx and takes things as they come to him, a steady shore used to the world always changing around him.

Maybe his mouth is just full of marshmallow and he’s being polite.

Even the thought makes Ienzo grin, his eyes crinkling up as he imagines Demyx with chipmunk cheeks stuffed with marshmallow. He looks up, just to check, and immediately meets Demyx’s gaze. Demyx was looking at him, at the top of his head, the curve of his nose, and smiling so softly that Ienzo can feel his heart stutter. _The physical one or the other one? The one you lost?_ It doesn’t matter, not really, even if he can’t help but ask himself. Ienzo shoves the questions aside and leans up.

Their lips brush and the world is nothing but this: a crackling fire, woodsmoke, and a kiss that tastes like sweetness.


End file.
